Chapter Summary: Exhausted from the night outings the ghost falls asleep for too long, sleeping the whole night away. When he awakes Thatch is going home and leaving Slither in charge. Slither certainly seems to be against Casper, leaving the friendly ghost with too many unanswered questions.

It was Friday finally, but that wasn't really comforting. Casper felt like hell, the lack of sleep was really catching up to him. In fact, he had gotten no sleep at all that night. He and Thatch had barely returned to the dorms before any of the alarms had gone off. Casper had just gotten on his bed, and Thatch only opened his coffin lid when the alarm clocks started to go off all around the room. Time to start the day.

Thatch didn't seem to mind, for he had closed his lid as if he was getting out of it. He went around the room, getting his personal friends up faster than normal, demanding they were 'lazy bones' and needed to move fast before he forced them too. The vampire seemed eager to get out of the room and away from Casper. It was a touch sad- but at the same time, the ghost understood.

Basically, this morning sucked. Now here he was, sitting in the cafeteria, his head drooping down every time he started to nod off, his face nearly hitting the tray of food in front of him every time. He just wanted to close his eyes and sleep so badly.

"So, Casper..." Mantha carefully spoke. "About last night- your plan was flawless." She admitted to the exhausted ghost. "So he really does take the same route every night, guess we can watch him easier." She said simply, knowing she would have to be blunt and not as secretive as they planned- Casper seemed too low on battery for anything complicated at the moment.

"Yeah, and dude he talked to you, not yelled. So weird." Ra brought up casually while making a face.

Ah right, their plan. Casper had been so determined to prove to his friends that Thatch wasn't evil, so he had told them exactly where to hide and wait for them, so they could listen in on the conversation last night- though he had begged they did not go into the forest. The forest was their secret place. Ra and Mantha had, of course, agreed and swore beforehand they wouldn't go in- they would stop at the courtyard then head back to their dorms.

"He even smiled, a lot actually." Mantha hummed as she poked at her food. "Guess you were right Casper- whoa easy there." She reached over and rested a hand on the ghost's shoulder as his head dropped down again. "Did you get any sleep? You look terrible."

"No sleep," Casper yawned, shaking his head and trying to stretch. "We ended up talking all night."

"About what?" Ra softly chuckled.

"My home. He wanted to know more about the fleshie's world." Casper calmly explained. "I ended up telling him more about Jimmy."

"Was that safe? I mean, talking about Jimmy to Thatch? What if he reports your friendship."Mantha carefully questioned. She knew how much Casper liked Thatch, but it was best to still keep the vampire at arms reach.

"He won't, he promised," Casper said confidently. "I trust him to keep it. He hasn't done anything to make me worry- oh..." Casper's train of thought got derailed as he watched the vampire walk into the cafeteria, his little gang in tow behind him.

The vampire's eyes scanned the room calmly as if trying to decide on what to do, who to bully for that day. As he looked Dummy Girl leaned up and whispered into the vampire's ear, who contently listened and nodded along to what she said.

Something about that was unsettling to the ghost but just felt too tired. He didn't want to get up and find out, he just wanted to sleep and look forward to their peaceful nights.

"Hey, Casper?" Ra drew his attention back. "What are you going to do about Thatch?"

"What do you mean Ra?"

"Well, you said you kinda... liked him, right?" He said, looking rather unsure. "And I guess I can see the softer side of Thatch, still don't like him but... What do we do now?" Ra was troubled. He still disliked the vampire, but if Casper liked Thatch what could be done? Ra just wanted to guarantee Casper was safe and that they weren't making a mistake.

"I don't know." Casper sighed dejectedly. "I really don't know."

~~~

Casper had fallen asleep in every single lesson, unable to keep his eyes open for more than a few minutes at a time. Ra and Mantha tried to keep him conscious, but their efforts were pointless. The ghost simply couldn't stay awake. Though, much to Casper's delight he did notice Thatch also dozing off once or twice when the lesson got really mundane. But that was probably from boredom than actually being tired.

Casper, with some sheer force of luck, did not get in trouble. Thatch, on the other hand, was given detention. It was probably because Thatch was sitting further up in class, more noticeable by the instructors. Casper pitied the vampire, knowing it was his fault they stayed up so late. But there was nothing to be done.

The rest of the day passed by in a haze, Casper really didn't remember much, and before he knew it he was crawled into bed, only he didn't wake up once his head touched the pillow. He fell into a deep sleep, exhausted. It wasn't until the sun was rising did Casper realize his mistake.

As the gentle beams of sunlight flooded into the stone room the ghost snapped straight up in bed, his blue eyes wide with the horror of his blunder, but before he could really take anything in he felt a dark shadow cover him. He looked up, and there was Thatch. He stood beside Casper's bed, blocking the lovely sunlight from coming in. He didn't look upset, more confused.

"What's the matter ghost boy?" He said coldly. "You look worse than Mantha when she decides to move those rotting limbs." Thatch laughed, earning a snicker from Mosshead and Slither who stood nearby.

"... Nothing." Casper spoke softly, averting his gaze. Casper had no clue what to say, or how he could get an apology to Thatch with his buddies standing right there. Thatch didn't stick by Casper's sidelong, he just calmly watched him for only a moment, before he turned away.

"Whatever... anyways listen up you losers!" He called out loudly, as always his voice capturing the attention of all the monsters in the room. It reminded Casper of the time Thatch took control of the flying ship when they were all first gathered and brought to the school. So the ghost boy contently listened, not getting out of bed yet. "I, unlike you unlucky souls am going home for the weekend." Thatch declared happily.

Thatch was leaving? For a whole weekend? They were allowed to visit home- or was this something different? Did students leave for family emergencies or something of the sort? Casper never heard of such a thing...

"While I'm gone Slither," he motioned over to his friend, who puffed out his chest proudly. "Will be making sure you sorry sacks won't go ruining this school." He smoothly explained, grinning cockily as he strolled back over to Slither. "See you when I get back." He added a softer note to his friend, patting his shoulder before he walked out of the room, looking rather pleased with himself.

And Casper, on the other hand, was destroyed. He sadly watched the vampire go, feeling his heart sink down into his chest. Thatch really was leaving? Was it his fault? Because he missed the meeting last night? No, surely Thatch wouldn't leave because of that- would he. Surely if he had gone to their meeting last night Thatch would have explained this in detail to him.

The ghost boy didn't even notice Slither watching him with such spite, such distrust, and loathing. The ghost boy only noticed when the monster slowly moved over and grabbed him by Thatch's shirt, lifting him out of bed with ease. His tentacles that served as hands stretched and coiled around the ghost as his normally uncaring eyes were filled with hate.

"You've been causing trouble..." He lightly hissed. None of the others seemed willing to get involved- except for Ra who had just rolled out of his sarcophagus, unbothered by Thaqtch's big announcement. The mummy had barely woken up when he saw Slither holding onto Casper. So, Ra did what he thought was best.

He blindly charged into battle and tackled Slither to the ground, which luckily made the snake-monster release the ghost. Ra yelled, grabbing onto Slither's dark robes as he tried to shake him up- mostly trying to spook the monster. Ra really didn't know what else to do, monsters weren't good at scaring monsters- unless you were Thatch.

And because of that Slither seemed unimpressed, and more annoyed that he was being shaken around by the mummy. Casper, desperate to save Ra from a royal ass-whooping was quick to pull his naive friend off of Slither.

"Please, please let's not fight." The blue-eyed ghost begged, swift to move between Ra and Slither. Casper kept one hand on Ra's chest, trying to push the mummy back and away from Slither.

"Touch Casper again and I swear I'll knock you out or my name isn't Raneferefu!" The angry mummy yelled, trying to move forward despite Casper's hand on his chest. The mummy was completely willing to fight the bigger monster if it meant protecting Casper. A touching gesture- but completely idiotic. Slither looked like he wanted to say something, but he was holding himself back. Everyone was still watching them, waiting to see who would win this fight. Did Thatch pick a strong monster that could defend his title while he was gone, or was Slither a failure?

Slither seemed to be thinking about these very things over. Normally he was one to sit back and watch, but with Thatch gone and him in charge things changed. While Slither was mulling things over, an Ra had settled down somewhat Casper had a moment to actually think. He hated the fact Thatch had to leave, but the vampire had no choice, right? Maybe if he rushed he could make it to the boat and ask Thatch to please stay- but he knew going home meant so much to the vampire- or any student at this dreadful school.

"Casper..." Slither spoke carefully. "You will stay away from Thatch. He doesn't need a stupid ghost haunting him. He has enough troubles..." Slither almost muttered before he slithered by them, bumping shoulders so hard with Ra he nearly knocked the mummy over. Mosshead nervously watched them before he ran after Slither, softly whining in distress.

"What an ass..." Ra muttered, rubbing his sore shoulder. "What was that all about?" He grumbled, then leaned closer to Casper. "Think he knows?" He softly whispered.

"He knows something... something about Thatch," the ghost boy frowned. He didn't like that. What did Slither know that he did not? He could go ask... He had time, surely he could catch up if he just rushed. "I'm going to find out. Bye Ra!" Casper quickly said, taking off. He went through the wall, phasing through it and felt Thatch's clothes fall to a crumpled heap on the floor. He had no time to worry about it now. The ghost flew through walls and halls- heading straight to the docks. The ghost actually reached the docks right on time to see Thatch going on board the pirate ship. He didn't seem pleased to be sailing with the blind pirate, but he said nothing of it which made this all seem even more unreal.

Casper went invisible and snuck aboard the ship, nervously watching Thatch as he sat down on one of the many benches, pulling out his family photo from his cloak to look at as the ship took off. Casper originally only wanted to talk to Thatch, but like that faraway night his curiosity was getting him in over his head.

Much to Casper's surprise, the ship was sailing into the human world... Where did Thatch live? The vampire always spoke about having a house in the Underworld, did he have another home, or was he lying about living in the Underworld after all? All of it was making the ghost boy nervous. Maybe he shouldn't be spying on Thatch- but he just wanted to know more and grow closer... It hurt his heart when he was away from the vampire and he just couldn't explain why.